My
interest in touring the temples of Vietnam is to become familiar with
their architecture and symbolism, and use these elements to identify historical
currents and (countercurrents) in the diverse regions of North, Central,
and South Vietnam. Much of Vietnamese history is encoded in its temples,
and by studying their religious history, statuary, and donor and royal
inscriptions, one can learn much that modifies or contradicts official
accounts.

There
are many types of temples in Vietnam, from the "Den" or "Mieu,"
dedicated to legendary spirits, great generals, the classic village-house
(dinh), dedicated to the founders of villages or crafts, to the
"Chua," usually a pagoda dedicated to the Buddha. While the
term "Chua" is classically reserved for the worship of the Buddha,
in the south many Chinese temples to Quan Cong are referred to as "Chua
Ong."

In
many cases, the spirits of these temples received royal recognition from
the Ministry of Rites. The recognition came in the form of silken certificates
written in Chinese characters and bearing the imperial seal. The emperor
Tu Duc flooded the country with more than 12,000 such certificates in
the early 1850s; look closely in most famous temples and you'll find one.

Royal
certificate issued by Tu Duc to the Van Thuy Tu
(the "Whale Temple") in Phan Thiet

VILLAGE
COMMUNAL HOUSES (DINH)

The
village community houses (dinh) in the north have received a good deal
of scholarly attention. These are relatively simple gathering-places with
altars to the spritis of one or two founders of the village. These dinh
have very little in the way of statuary, but some of the older ones have
beautiful and elaborate wood-carved panels in the rafters.

The
Dinh (or Dinh Than) in the south have not received nearly
as much attention, though they often contain many altars to historical
figures and legendary spirits that bear witness to the Nguyen lords' gradual
expansion into this region. I'm thinking here of the temples to the commanders
of the "Three Fleets" in Vung Tau, Dinh Ben Thuy in
the outskirsts of Can Tho city, and the dinh to one of the early
anti-colonial martyrs, Nguyen Trung Truc, in the city of Rach Gia.

TEMPLES
TO REGIONAL OR NATIONAL SPIRITS (DEN)

Sometimes
a temple is built to a figure who is both the founder of a village, and
a figure of much wider renown. These temples are often called a "Den."
One example is the temple to the 13th-Century hero, Tran Hung Dao. He
is revered as the ancient founder of Kiep Bac, to the east of Hanoi, but
he is also widely known as the great general who defeated the armies of
Kublai Khan.

His
military prowess has been translated into the power to heal those suffering
illnesses provoked by malevolent spirits, and he also has developed a
reputation as an herbalist. In a related way, he has also been adopted
by other temples as a protective figure. Interestingly, this translation
from a military to a civil role is also seen in the appearanc of the Chinese
general Guan Yu (Quan Cong) in Buddhist pagodas.

Famous
figures memorialized in the Den often attract pilgrims from throughout
Vietnam. Among the more famous examples is "Saint Giong" (Thanh
Giong) in the village of Phu Dong north of Hanoi. Tran Quoc Vuong suggests
that this spirit, also known as "Ong Dong," was once purely
a nature deity--later immortalized by the Confucian literati
in the story of a small boy who grew to enormous size in a few days and
led a Vietnamese army against northern invaders.

The
crossover between Dinh and Den is seen in many other
places in the north, such as Dinh Kim Lien, both a communal house
and a royally-recognized temple to Cao Son, a mountain spirit who was
named as the southern "guardian" of the city of Thang Long (Hanoi).

In
the north, a Den
can be characterized as having a much more complex floor plan (relative
to a northern dinh), with multiple chambers and altars for subsidiary
figures and officials who must be approached before entering the main
sanctuary. In this respect, they can sometimes be confused with a Buddhist
pagoda (chua).

The
architectural imagery of the Den includes the "Tam Quan" gate
(with three arched entrances), statues of horses, bas-relieve images of
dragons, elephants, and tigers, and racks of sacred weapons in front of
the altar.

Sometimes
the symbolism of a Den may overlap with features of the Buddhist
pagodas, particular examples being, the nghe dog, the phoenix, the calabash
(a Taoist emblem), and cranes standing on the backs of turtles (representing
longevity of the ancestor's cult). Some Buddhist pagodas will also have
the "Tam Quan" gate; I suspect this feature only appears at
pagodas that receive royal visitors, but am not certain of this.

The
sacred weapons can be quite fanciful,
reminding
us not of military forcebut spiritual battles.
Buddhist pagoda of Giac Vien in Saigon.

The
image of the bat is especially popular in Hue, where it is taken to symbolize
good fortune. (This is a visual pun--the Chinese word for "bat"
sounds like the word for "good luck.")

BUDDHIST
PAGODAS (CHUA)

Most
of the pagodas in Vietnam reflect the Mahayana tradition followed by the
ethnic Vietnamese (Kinh). The popular form of the Mahayana incorporates
many of the tenets of the "Pure Land" faith, including the belief
that a layperson can achieve nirvana in one lifetime. The teaching tradition
for the monks includes various forms of Zen (Thien) meditation. (One of
the most interesting is the Truc Lam school, which takes Yen
Tu Mountain as its home.)

In
earlier times, central and southern Vietnam was ruled by Cham and Khmer
kings who followed a form of Theravada Buddhism similar to that in Cambodia.
You can still see a few distinctive Theravada temples in the Mekong
region, but most of the pagodas in these regions are now Mahayana communities
founded by the Kinh (majority Vietnamese) settlers.

The
most prominent representation of the Buddha is Amitahba, the Buddha of
the past and the guardian of the western paradise that is celebrated as
the "Pure Land." The main altar in the northern temples usually
has a distinctive array of statues of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

There
have been numerous schema to describe the typical arrangement of these
statues in northern pagodas. One of the best graphic representations appears
in Louis Bezacier's 1955 book on Vietnamese art and architecture (see
below). This volume is hard to come by these days, but the Friends
of Vietnam Heritage's excellent booklet on the Tran Quoc Pagoda
gives a similar layout.

Detail
of Bezacier's pagoda layout (showing only the main chamber;I have highlighted the Buddhas in orange). In many pagodas the
Buddha is shown as a baby boy rather than recumbent (Nirvana).
Also, the teacher-monk Bodhidharma is now usually found
in a separate chamber behind the main altar, where the
prominent monks of the pagoda are venerated. Similarly,
Ksitigarbha is now often found in a side-chamber
devoted to deceased laypersons of the pagoda community.

The
topmost row is traditionally composed of three identical Buddhas of the
"Three Eras" (Tam The), also sometimes referred to as the "Three
Bodies." The idea of the three "eras" or "bodies"
of the Buddha means different things to different monks and laypersons,
and may take a while for me to unravel in my book. (The Wikipedia discussion
of the "Trikaya" is a good starting-point for these concepts.)

There
are usually three rows after the "Tam The," with a Buddha in
the center of each row. In the vertical arrangement, however, the Buddhas
are portrayed in their individual forms: Amitahba, the Buddha of the past,
the historical Buddha "Shakyamuni," often shown as a gaunt ascetic,
and the well-known Buddha of the future, chubby Maitreya (left). Each
of these Buddhas is flanked by some of the most famous of the Boddhisattvas.

It
is interesting to compare this arrangement to the "three-in-one"
concept of divinity that is so familiar to Catholics. The top row shows
the three manifestations of the Buddha as identical in form; the vertical
row shows them as different. If we had consistent icons for the Father
and the Holy Ghost, we might see the same sort of thing in Christian iconography.
(Since most of these statues were carved and deployed in a time when Catholic
monks were already teaching the doctrine of the Trinity in Vietnam, it
would be interesting to explore whether this more than a coincidental
observation.)

A
small statue of the baby Buddha will often be found at the front of the
array, pointing with one hand to the sky and the other to the ground (right).
According to tradition, the Buddha took seven steps after being born and
then made this gesture to indicate that his teaching was the only one
that applies to both heaven and earth. The baby Buddha will often be encircled
by a golden trellis of dragons, who, according to the tradition, spouted
"pure water" that cleansed him.

In
the north, many other altars are typically scattered around the central
worshipping-hall, particularly statues of the widely-worshipped bodhisattva/
goddess Avalatikosvera (Quan Am in Vietnam, Kwan Yin in China, and Kannon
in Japan). Some Taoist deities have also crept into the temples: you may
see Nam Tao and Bac Dau, the star-gods who record births and deaths, or
perhaps even the Jade Emperor (Ngoc Hoang) himself.

The
forward or side hallways will often have flanking rows of the "Kings
of Hell" (five on each side, as shown below left). Also, to the rear
of the pagoda, you may find chambers devoted to the remembrance of the
patrons of the pagoda and to its superior monks. Some pagodas are famous
for their statues of the of the lineage of 28 Zen teachers from Buddha
to Bodhidharma, or of the "18 arhats" in their characteristic
poses (below right).

More
information about Vietnamese temples:

•
500 Danh Lam Viet Nam (500 Famous Pagodas in Vietnam),
Vo Van Tuong, NXB Thong Tan, Saigon, 2008. An updated and expanded edition
of Vo Van Tuong vast catalogue of noteworthy Buddhist pagodas from north
to south, with color illustrations for each and text in Vietnamese and
English.
• Buddhist Temples in Vietnam, Ha Van
Tan, Nguyen Van Ku, Pham Ngoc Long, The Gioi Publishing House, Hanoi,
2007. More polished than Vo Van Tuong's book, but with fewer pagodas and
less source material, this handsome edition is also an essential reference.
• Dinh Viet Nam (Community Halls), Ha
Van Tan and Nguyen Van Ku, NXB T.P. Ho Chi Minh, 1998.
• Dinh Lang Mien Bac, The Village Dinh in Northern Vietnam,
Le Thanh Duc, Trade-Union Printing Works, Hanoi, 2001
• L'art vietnamien, Louis Bezacier, Paris,
1955. A very interesting and insightful study into the temple and tomb
architecture of Vietnam, with heavy emphasis on Hue and the two northern
temples of But Thap and Phat Tich. P.J. Honey notes that this is "to
some extent a new edition of M. Bezacier's Essais sur l'art annamite published
in 1944 at Hanoi."
• "The Legend of Ong Dong from the Field to the Text,"
Tran Quoc Vuong in Essays into Vietnamese Pasts, edited by K.
W. Taylor, and John K. Whitmore, Cornell, Southeast Asia Program 1995.
• Pagodas, Gods, and Spirits of Vietnam
- Ann Helen Unger and Walter Unger, Thames & Hudson, 1997. A beautifully
photographed book with accompanying text on pagodas, iconography, religious
traditions, spirit cults, and ancestor worship.
• Tran Quoc Pagoda Hanoi - An excellent
illustrated guidebook published by the Friends of Vietnam Heritage, explaining
the arrangement of Buddhas and the significance of the Holy Mothers, Guardian
of the Pagoda, Guardians of the Law, etc. •
My Master's Robes, Memories of a Novice Monk,
Thich Nhat Hanh, Parallax Press, 2002 - Originally published in a Buddhist
magazine in the 1950s, these stories are particularly interesting for
their first-hand impressions of temple life in central Vietnam (Hue).
Thich Nhat Hanh became a monk at age 16, during the very turbulent years
from 1942 to 1947, which saw Japanese occupation, famine, and the beginning
of the war against French colonial rule.
• •
Vietnam:
Journeys of Body, Mind, & Spirit - An on-line companion
to the recent exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History in
New York (March 15, 2003- March 7, 2004). The accompanying book is still
commercially available, including informative essays on Vietnamese festivals
and rituals of the ethnic minorities.•
Spirit
Possession Religions and Popular Rituals Flourish in Vietnam
- Article on the government's "anti-superstition" campaign and
the Holy Mother cult and other spirit cults, by Leslie Evans. [Center
for Southeast Asian Studies/UCLA International Institute]